A style blogger based in Seattle is launching an Asian American web series focused on women.

Titled Sweet & Power, the series aims to boost Asian American representation on screen.

Born in Hong Kong, Yuen-Marino moved from Hong Kong to Seattle aged 6 and went on to graduate at the University of Washington before working full-time as a high school English teacher.

Yuen-Marino also blogs regularly about style and fashion on her website Hey Pretty Thing and has amassed over 20,000 followers in Instagram.

Although Yuen-Marino has no experience in filmmaking, she was not deterred to produce her own series.

“I thought, maybe I should try to make a show even though I’ve never done that before and never had any experience,” said Yuen-Marino. “But oh well, let’s just go for it!”

Sweet & Power, a play on ‘sweet and sour’, is a five-part digital series inspired by her own experience as a Chinese-American immigrant.

“I slowly learned English through reading Dr. Seuss – I know, it was kind of a complicated way of learning English,” she said. “Like, does everything rhyme?”

“I just want to show more nuance in the community,” Yuen-Marino added. “You know, maybe someone that’s a first generation versus a fifth generation might have a completely different Asian American identity… I wanted to bring that into the light a little bit more, but in a funny way.”

She went on to say that she hopes to reshape people’s perception of Asian American women through her series.

“Sometimes people see Asian American women as really quiet or sweet,” she said. “Maybe it’s people expecting power to look a certain way or being the loudest voice in the room, but I wanted to put those two words together just to show that maybe power and strength can come in many different forms.”

Born in Taiwan, Joan moved to the UK at an early age. Struggling to understand her identity and her place in society, Joan keeps a low personal profile but is keen to share her thoughts with the wider world.

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